“Electric Company” was the original “Hooked on Phonics”

When I was in second grade in Aurora, Colo., we had a television in our classroom. I only remember two programs that we watched: the final Apollo moon landings, and “The Electric Company.”

I was already a voracious reader, but I think I learned more about how words are put together from The Electric Company than I did from Dr. Seuss or any of the other children’s books I read.

Long before “Hooked on Phonics” started hawking their products on television, The Electric Company used the variety show format popularized by Carol Burnett and “Laugh-In” to teach kids how words were put together. It was aimed at kids who already knew the basics and were ready for the next level.

It used (for its time) flashy graphics and cartoons to show kids how changing letters in words created new words. Sound clusters and letter combinations made new words out of simpler ones. And the words were more complex than those presented on “Sesame Street.” It used humor and music to teach us the expanded possibilities of the English language, and we loved it.

Kids already knew Bill Cosby and Rita Moreno (“HEYYYY YOU GUYYYS!”), but the other cast members were pretty cool as well. Who knew that “Easy Reader” (Morgan Freeman) would go on to win an Oscar? Personally, I always liked Judy Graubert’s (the dark-haired lady) characters the best. Besides, she was cute.

And there were recurring skits and cartoons: “Love of Chair,” “The Adventures of Letterman” (with Gene Wilder, Zero Mostel and Joan Rivers providing voices), “Spiderman,” the “2001″ monoliths, and the simple face silhouettes providing sound clusters and words were some of my favorites.

This four-disc set has 20 of the “best” episodes. I haven’t watched them all yet, but I was extremely delighted with the memories that resurfaced. It would be impractical to release the 800+ episodes on DVD, not to mention prohibitively expensive, but it would be great if they put them on a video-on-demand service. I would subscribe to it.

In the meantime, I plan to show these to my seven-year-old niece and see what she thinks of it. I think she’ll be enthralled. And when my daughter is old enough, I’ll be pulling them out for her.